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HISTORY

Late in the year of 1895, the Payette Valley Irrigation and Water Power Co. platted a township of 325 acres. It was called the New Plymouth Colony. Within a few months, 35 families had settled in the Village. It was in Canyon County but changed to Payette County in 1917. With the building of the Payette Branch of the Oregon Short Line Railroad, the village began to grow. New Plymouth became a City in 1948, rather than a Village.

By 1910 the population had risen to 274. There was a lot of building going on and new business’s starting up. The new brick school was built-in 1904, and a new section added to it in 1915. In 1920, the population was estimated to be 400 people. There was a Bank, a Newspaper, 4 Fruit Packing warehouses, 1 modern public School, and several well-stocked Stores. They also had water, lights, and telephones. The roads were still unpaved until 1926.

Trying to reconstruct the location of some of these business places with the dates and owners is difficult. They changed hands and were moved or just disappeared, over the years.